County to get water and sewer grant money
By Steve Herring
Published in News on December 28, 2008 2:00 AM
Wayne, Greene and Lenoir counties have received slightly more than $2.1 million in grants from the N.C. Rural Center Economic Development Center for water and wastewater improvements.
Wayne County received the bulk of the grants, $2.065 million, while Greene and Lenoir counties each received $30,000.
Fremont was the only Wayne County municipality to receive funding from the center. The remainder went to county sanitary districts.
Fremont received a $200,000 Rural Center grant in 2005 for a sanitary sewer rehabilitation project. The latest round of funding increased that amount by $65,300.
Fremont Town Manager Kerry McDuffie said that the $1.5 million project, funded by the Rural Center and Clean Water Management Trust Fund, was for replacing and work on old sewer lines that allowed rainwater into the system. The project went over budget by about $65,000 as the result of running into water lines and drains that the town had not been aware of, McDuffie said. The new appropriation will cover that overrun.
"The Rural Center and (its director) Billy Ray Hall have been great to deal with," McDuffie said. "Incredibly, they came in and helped out the project."
The sanitary districts each received $500,000.
The districts and their projects are:
*Southeastern Wayne Sanitary District: Water improvements. Southeastern will add piping to connect an existing well to a treatment plant to put the well into use. Total project cost is $1 million. Local funds will be used to pay for the other half of the project.
*Belfast-Patetown Sanitary District: Water line connections and wells. The $1 million project includes a well house and site work to put a well into service and adding three miles of additional water line along Robert Peele Road, U.S. 117 and Gov. Aycock Road to connect to the Northwestern Wayne Sanitary District. The project will enable the systems to move water between themselves. Half of the project will be paid for by local money.
*Eastern Wayne Sanitary District: Raw water well pumps, well heads and piping. The district will add approximately two miles of water lines, pumps and site work at three wells to move water to an existing water treatment pant. Total project cost is $1 million, half of which will be locally funded.
*Northwestern Wayne Sanitary District: Water improvement projects. The district will add approximately four miles of water lines along the Pikeville-Princeton Road between Johnston County and N.C. 581 primarily to allow the district to buy water from Johnston County. It also will allow the district to sell water to Johnston County. The total project cost is $750,000 and includes $250,000 in local money.
Also, the Rosenwald Center for Cultural Enrichment in Greene County received funding for its West Harper Street revitalization project.